CLEAN WATER?

There is an article today in today’s The New York Times about the demand for bottled water in Mexico and many other third world countries.

It’s widely understood that the greatest threat to health in third world countries is the lack of clean water. The Times’ story recounted that despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars people in Mexico don’t trust their tap water. Instead, they spend their meager incomes on bottled water believing (often correctly) that it is far cleaner and healthier than the tap water supplied by municipalities.

It all reminded me of the time I spent a few years ago as a volunteer with Rotary Project Amigo in the village of Cofridia in the State of Colima, Mexico.

One day I was taking a walk through the village with a local fellow who was working with Project Amigo. We went past a modern water treatment plant. I recounted that upon arriving my first night in Cofrida I was immediately warned not to drink the tap water.

“Of course” he replied, no one drinks it.” “But” I said, “here is a brand new water plant. Isn’t the water fit to drink?” He proudly replies, “its as pure as any water in the world.” “So the problem?” I inquired. His quick answer, “it’s the pipes. The water that goes into the pipes is clean and pure. The pipes are rotten. They leak. They are made of bad things (lead?) and the water that comes out at our home is bad.”

The fact was that millions were spent for a modern water plant that fed into rotten transmission pipes. Can the obvious problem be solved? Theoretically, sure. Unfortunately in a country with a corrupt civic culture like that in Mexico, that a very expensive proposition, fraught with opportunities of corruption and unlikely to happen any time soon.